ROH 7th Anniversary Show from NYC

ROH at the Hammerstein Ballroom 3-21 New York
By Joe Lanza


ROH 7th Anniversary Show from NYC:

Roderick Strong & Erick Stevens def. Rhett Titus & Kenny King: Hot opener. Strong deserves a better spot, his character seems directionless right now. Titus & King are over, and make a solid team.

Brent Albright def. Claudio Castagnoli via DQ: Match went to a 15 minute draw, but Castagnoli asked for 5 more minutes, and Albright accepted. Castagnoli immediately low blowed Albright when the match was re started, resulting in the lame DQ finish. Fans were not happy. Castagnoli attacked Albright with a chair post match, and left him laying.

Bobby Dempsey def. mystery opponent Adam Pearce in 30 seconds: Pearce had a verbal confrontation with NBC's Mike Oliphant (sp?) before the match, and gave him a good shove that tore his shirt. Once again, they booked Dempsey in a quick squash, which is a smart thing, but where do they go from here? He's already gotten his revenge on Sweet & Sour multiple times now. A match with Chris Hero?

Jerry Lynn def. Mike Quackenbush: Solid match, but too short to develop into anything more. Lynn won out of nowhere with the cradle piledriver.

Tyler Black, Necro Butcher, & Delirious def. Austin Aries, Jimmy Jacobs, & Brodie Lee in a "Revolution Rules" match: What a disaster. One of the worst matches i've ever seen in the dozens of ROH shows i've attended. Confusing rules (even the wrestlers seemed confused), and just plain awful. Delirious was eliminated first, via pinfall. This meant the next fall had to be a submission. However, this did not stop the participants from going for pins, or ref Todd Sinclair from counting them. Necro Butcher & Brodie Lee were eliminated next, via DQ for "leaving the ringside area". Keep in mind, there were supposed to be no DQ's, and neither man submitted. That's besides the fact that 90% of the match was a brawl away from the ringside area. Next one out was Aries, who was submittted by Black. They did a bunch of nearfalls, so everyone assumed we were back to pinfalls, so the submission was again quite confusing. Whatever. Black then beat Jacobs, to absolutely ZERO pop. Everyone hated this, but no one really wanted to shit on Black, who worked hard and is very over. This was like a bad TNA gimmick match, but much worse. Even more confusing than the reverse battle royal, and the match quality wasn't very good either, aside from the stuff with Black & Aries. Brodie Lee is not up to ROH standards, and drags everything down. Just a beyond horrible match.

Intermission: RIC FLAIR will be in NYC in June.

Bryan Danielson & COLT CABANA def. Bison Smith & JIMMY RAVE (w/Prince Nana & Dirty Ernie Osirus): Rave got a big pop when Nana called him out, and it was good to see him back in his "crown jewel" gimmick. He was, however, out of shape, with a small belly hanging over his tights. Must have been nice working with a T-Shirt for a year. Grizzly Redwood initially came out as Dragon's partner, to many groans from the crowd, but was quickly dispatched by Smith, leading to COLT CABANA hitting the ring, to by far the largest pop of the night. MEGA HEAT for the return. Match was ok, nothing special, but it wasn't about the match, it was about the surprise returns of the two former regulars. Post match, Cabana asked for "Final Countdown", and Colt & Dragon played to the crowd as they sung along.

D-Lo Brown def. Jay Briscoe: D-Lo cut a promo before the match, thanking WWE fro dropping him, and proclaiming ROH his new home. He turned heel during the match, using a low blow (no DQ this time, so why was Claudio DQ'd earlier? The Pearce booking is wildly incosistant), and won out of nowhere with a rollup while holding the tights. Underwhelming 80's style match with a lame 80's style finish. Crowd hated this.

Kevin Steen & El Generico def. Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards to retain ROH World Tag Titles: Awesome match, with Generico stealing the show. Apparently this was no DQ, and they went right to the chairs & ladders early. Too many crazy spots to keep up with. Generico was on fire, and nailed all of his daredevil spots. This match, along with the Colt Cabana/Jimmy Rave returns, make the DVD a MUST BUY if you are on the fence about the show. I'm not usually a star rating guy, but this was easily ****1/2 or ****3/4. Off the charts heat start to finish. Post match, Wolves got their heat back, and laid out Generico through a table before taping Steen to the ropes and killing him with a double chairshot. Match and angle were nothing short of awesome.

Nigel McGuinness def. KENTA to retain ROH World Title: KENTA immediately attacked the injured arm with high kicks & armbars. They worked this match slow, plus the previous match was hard to follow, so the match had little heat. Many people were leaving, which is baffling, because KENTA dosen't come around very often. Crazy. People weren't buying that KENTA could win, either. Despite these hurdles, the final 5 minutes were very good. KENTA pulled down the knee pad, and hit the GTS, but Nigel made the ropes on 2. Nigel missed a bunch of rebound jawbreakers, and countered at least three GTS attempts. Nigel hit his own GTS for a two count. KENTA survived multiple Tower Of London's and London Dungeon attempts. He eventually tapped after a hot sequence. Good match, would have been much better with a better crowd. I'd say ****.

A quick note....most of the guys had their old music back, but a few, most notably Castagnoli with his new classical song, and Nigel, still had the new generic stuff. Didn't look like a sellout, because they removed several rows of empty seats a few minutes before the show started. Overall, a nothing show pre intermission, which has been the case since Pearce took over the book. Show was saved by the awesome tag title match.

Joe Lanza
(W2BTD)

by Matt Willence





Here are the results for ROH’s seventh anniversary show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City:



3/21 ROH (New York City): Roderick Strong & Erick Stevens b Rhett Titus & Kenny King; Brent Albright b Claudio Castagnioli by DQ; Bobby Dempsey b Adam Pearce; Jerry Lynn b Mike Quackenbush; 6-man tag Ultimate Endurance Elimination Revolution Rules match: Delirious & Tyler Black & Necro Butcher b Austin Aries, Jimmy Jacobs & Brodie Lee, Tyler Black last survivor; Bryan Danielson & Colt Cabana b Bison Smith & Jimmy Rave; D’Lo Brown b Jay Briscoe; No DQ ROH World Tag Titles: Kevin Steen & El Generico (c) b Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards; ROH World Title: Nigel McGuiness (c) b KENTA





Notes: The Adam Pearce match was a total squash lasting probably a little over a minute which leads me to believe Pearce’s return is a one-shot deal. In the Ultimate Endurance match, Aries pinned Delirious so the next fall could not end in pinfall, Brodie and Necro were eliminated for brawling away from the ring, Tyler Black caused aries to submit to the End Times although he might’ve been already out from a superkick. The next fall could not end in submission. This didn’t stop Jacobs from using the End Times twice, the second time Black turned it into God’s Last Gift (his small package driver) and pinned Jacobs. Aries and Jacobs didn’t get along in the match …Jimmy Rave got a nice pop. As soon as Prince Nana said the words “crown jewel” the crowd started cheering and doing the Embassy sign. He also got cheers of “Welcome back”” and did a good job of staying in character and acknowledging none of it. After Danielson came to the ring, Grizzly Redwood’s music hit. He came down climbed to the top turnbuckle, leaped, was caught by Bison Smith and thrown out the other side. Then Cabana’s music hit and the crowd went wild. I was surprised to see him there since I saw it reported that he had a 90 day no compete clause. Maybe it means he couldn’t appear at the TV tapings and on PPV… D’Lo said he was told ‘we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.” He said that was all got from the WWE after a lackluster return where he wasted his time. He said he had two words for the WWE: thank you. His future endeavors were going to be in ROH. It appears he’s turning heel. He shoved the ref, then kicked Jay in the nuts. He also won by holding the tights. A new Embassy member perhaps? A ton of high spots in the tag title match including Eddie Edwards taking a sick chair shot in the head. Maybe Chris Nowinski should pay another visit. The post –match beatdown saw Generico put though a table with an assisted ace crusher. Steen was tied to the ropes by tape and his injured knee was repeatedly worked over with chairs. He spat blood at Edwards and was given a conchairto. The world title match started off slow but picked up speed and turned out really good. Nigel gave kENTA the GTS but KENTA kicked out. Nigel was hit with it but put his feet on the ropes. KENTA tried the move three more times but Nigel was always able to counter it. He won by submission….I felt the second half (which started with Danielson’s tag match) was better than the first half….A lot of entrance music changes which I guess is because of the TV deal. At the end of his tag match Cabana asked for “Final Countdown” to be played and it was….Curious by his absence was Larry Sweeney….ROH returns to Manhattan June 13 with Ric Flair.